Project NIVEA
by EiriArgentum
Summary: Prompto has waited 2 years to return to Gralea in search of something he feels left there and in his travel, not only finds it but also, he will had the chance to see Noctis again. [NOTE: Sorry for my english, it's my first time with a fic in this language]
1. The emptiness of words

**1\. The emptiness of words.**

Since his emotional farewell to Noctis, Prompto and the guys had not been seen again and however, the _chobobro_ was quite certain that none of them had stopped eliminating the demons that Ardyn had left behind. Prompto's life had not been much easier since he separated from his friends, in his mind was more present than ever that his origins were in Niflheim and something inside had made him enter again on that way back pursuing something that only he could feel. When he got into gear he put all the warm clothes that he had in his backpack for to be able to better cope with the eternal cold that awaited him on all frontiers of the Empire because, no matter which way he chose before reaching the capital, he would find the icy tundra that characterized so much the horrible place.

Prompto had not seen Niflheim since the last battle with the rest of his friends, It was a painful memory and coming back again only reminded him that his best friend was no longer by his side to support him when everything turned dark but now, instead of Noct, he had a tattoo that he would force himself to watch whenever his strength faltered: _If we walk, we'll see you again._

During his trip to the Empire his camera didn't stop working, little by little he realized that he was instinctively advancing along the same path he traveled with his friends the first time and since he did not at the time, he dedicated himself to immortalizing every significant detail he encountered: Camps, animals, even take a new photos with Cindy and maintaining a interesting conversation with her… "Everyone will die of envy when they see it" he thought to himself when he showed the photos to the blonde women. Cindy had not stopped being the goddess he thought she was, although time will continue to pass Prompto always thought that she was beautiful and kind and – obviously– the Cindy's garage was not around but It was worth going to the place.

"It's been a long time since you've come here, it's nice to see a familiar face," she said, punching him in the arm.

He laughed. Worshiped Cindy's voice. Cindy offered Prompto to spend the night in her caravan instead of the outdoor, and who would say not? Despite the embarrassment he felt when she asked him, Prompto accepted the request by tilting his head as he drew a half smile. What was not expected were the events that took place inside the caravan that night: After dinner, Cindy began to ask him about his adventures with Noctis and the guys, she wanted to know what happened to the prince in those ten years of darkness or why the sun returned to illuminate Lucis… And from there, she began to rummage through the feelings of the blond boy until without warning, the girl straddled on the Prompto's hip:

"I've always wanted to know what it feels like when you ride a chocobo." She said.

At first, Prompto didn't know what she meant by that until Cindy's tender lips kissed him. It's necessary to explain what's happened after?

* * *

When he woke up it was early enough but still, Cindy was inside the garage repairing a couple of cars, Prompto dressed and discovered on the door of the caravan there was a voucher that would be for to get food in the bar. He smiled to himself, next to the voucher was a note written by Cindy: "Good morning, my little Chocobo, I hope you don't take so many years to come back again, last night was nice. Take care, Cindy". Not knowing very well why, he noticed how he blushed and even so, he left the caravan and acted as if nothing had happened.

He had breakfast and said goodbye to Cindy and –after making sure no one looked at them– he gave her a quick kiss in the mouth and a wink as he left the garage. Despite the safety he had shown, he could feel his legs trembling even well past the frontiers of the city. The days became slower from that, every night that he camped Prompto missed Cindy, It was as if suddenly the heat of that girl had taken over his whole being and made him miss having someone to talk at night; it didn't want to say that he could no longer live without her, but he had remembered his old nights surrounded by people whom he appreciated and once again, because of the Empire he was left alone.

Time passed and the cold became more palpable as it approached the Empire's frontier, since his trip he had not encountered any demons but he had also read that the few remaining specimens took refuge in Niflheim because anyone had shown an interest in the ruins of what had brought the decadence to Lucis and to the whole world. _"I must be the only fool that comes here"_ he thought as he walked along the abandoned tracks of the train that came to the capital. The icy wind froze his face and created a cold layer of frost on his skin, that night would not be enough to find a place to sleep, but he would have to rest somewhere where he could take refuge from the snowstorm that would hit the tundra when it was night. Luckily for him, he discovered a dilapidated train carriage on the ledge of a cliff, when at last he was in front of the train carriage he was removing the snow until he had a hole through which to go inside and once inside he let out a sigh of relief to see that there was nothing dead that made him vomit for being there. Perhaps the most difficult part had been solved, he went outside to see if he could find anything more to eat than the tin cans he carried in the depths of her backpack.

In his walk he found nothing to move or could he chew, he was not a kitchen expert as Ignis had been during his trip but luckily, Prompto had learned something on his own in the time he was alone. When the light was showing signs of disappearing, he accepted that night he would eat canned food and returned to the train car, when lacked only a few yards left when he discovered strange marks on the floor, it seemed human footprints and came from the depths of the tundra, the footsteps were quite recent and although he ruled out that they were of an enemy or of an animal by the way they were drawn in the snow his heart began to throb with speed, Prompto looked for one of his pistols trying to make the minimum possible movement, since Noct had disappeared he had to carry his arms on him and to choose in each occasion (depending on his trip) which one of them was better option. The sound of loading the gun even made an echo and he waited in silent for a few seconds still waiting for whatever was walking in the snow gave some sign of being close, suddenly a sound pierced Prompto's ear and without stopping to think much, the guy started to run in the direction in which he had heard how that which was walking fell on the snow. When he finally found what he was looking for, his heart throbbed harder, giving him the feeling that it would come out of his chest: Before him was a human body lying face down on the snow. He ran to the person in question and turned it around, discovering that was a girl who should not have been more than twenty years old; the girl was only wearing a bulletproof vest on top of a military jacket that was wide enough to be his size, worn pants and boots that didn't seem to be his either; luckily the train carriage wasn't far from there so once he put his gun away, Prompto grabbed the girl as best he could and walked to safety inside the vehicle.

Once there, his problem was another: the girl didn't wake up and falling asleep in the cold could mean that she never woke up, Prompto kept moving, wondering what the hell to do until his blue eyes discovered that the real carriage door opened to the walls of the cliff maybe if he opened it he could improvise something to make a fire. He put all his strength into opening a hole large enough for him to enter in profile, to his surprise, in that place that faced the outside there was hardly snow since there was a plank high enough to avoid falling snow inside, the only that he had to do was move the plank to open a hole through which the smoke of the campfire would emerge. Without think about it, he began to search among the rocks small places to grab to be able to move himself to the wooden roof, with much effort achieved its goal and prepared using wood from the carriage abandoned a small fire (which was giving warmth and better light to that improvised sleeping alcove). Prompto smiled proudly of his work, he also thought that the fire would give a better flavor to the canned food and could also take advantage of it to have potable water from the snow; he dedicated himself to do all after wrapping the girl in one of his blankets and put her by the fire, when to look at her with more attention realized that it was quite familiar but could not say why: She was blond with her hair pulled back into a rather disheveled and leafy braid, he didn't know what color her eyes were but the cheekbones and bridge of her nose were colored by a row of small freckles… _"She looks as Cindy?"_ Prompto thought. Automatically dismissed the idea but what other girl could he remember?

While Prompto was in his canned dinner, the girl began to wake up. He stared at her, discovering with astonishment that she had a blue eyes and waited for her to orient herself. At first Prompto thought that she would be quite nervous since it was not very normal to find herself in front of a bonfire accompanied by a guy whom she neither knew nor had seen in her life but… nothing of that happened, the girl looked at him disoriented and then she tried to say something to him realizing that the words refused to leave her mouth. Surprised, she put a hand to her throat and blinks several times totally stunned. Prompto tried to help her and gave her a glass of water without getting too close, she accepted and after giving a few sips to the glass tried to speak again without success:

"Don't worry, your voice will come back" He said with an extra comprehension in his voice "Do you understand at least what I say?"

The girl looked at him and nodded slowly as if it really took a little to understand all that the blond guy was saying, he caught it and slowed his words as he spoke:

"Do you want to eat something?"

She smiled and nodded again. Both shared the food and to avoid the awkward silence between the both, Prompto kept talking and tried by all means to get information from the girl about who she was: His attempt was a failure because with slight gestures to nod or deny could not go too far but he descovered that the girl came from Niflheim, she could not remember why had left there but something seemed to frighten her, the girl didn't have any hurt or feel sore and it was quite strange considering that the demons attacked without hesitating to all that moved… Even so, he didn't want to push her too much, so Prompto wished her good night and leaned against the train car to watch for something or someone attacking them drawn by the heat of the fire.

When he woke up in the morning he felt the impulse to laugh when he was involved in a comical situation: First of all, he thought that if they had been attacked, he would not have been the first to realize because he was lying a few inches from what was left of the fire of the night before (a few of inches from where he thought he slept) and at his side, extremely cuddled, the girl who he had rescued the last night. When he looked at her again, the sensation of knowing her struck his chest, but he still didn't remember what situation his paths might have crossed and more if she came from the Empire. He thought of the idea of seeing her when Ardyn drove the entire army versus Lucis kingdom and kidnapped him, but then he fell that there were two important factors that completely ruled out his theory: The first was that he had not seen anyone in his captivity and the second ... that the girl must have been a girl of no more than ten years when that happened. He stood up without making much movement and went outside to wash his face and save everything to get going again, suddenly, a small mirror fell to the ground and was fortunate not to break into the shock. When Prompto picked it up from the floor he was startled to see himself reflected in him: he was blond, not as light as the girl but had blue eyes too ... and cheekbones and nose colored with freckles... To his mind came the solution of who his new partner reminded him: himself. But how and why?

The sound of her moving between the blanket brought him back to reality; the blond guy again peered into the hollow and helped the girl to rise up. She seemed to be able to stand.

"Oh, wait... I don't know where you go but I'm going to Gralea" said Prompto.

Without warning, the girl took his arm and shook his head. There was a small struggle in which in the end Prompto became enraged and made a bad move for to let go him of the girl, she was a bit frightened at first but when Prompto walked away to leave her alone more angry felt, she started to walk behind the man and when both were out of the train carriage, Prompto felt like a snowball crashed against the nape of his neck. As he turned, the blonde guy watched as the girl set out to create another icy projectile and her face showed considerable annoyance:

"Ey, ey, ey, keep calm" said Prompto "I'm sorry, really, so sorry, I didn't want you to get upset, but ... seriously, I have to go"

The girl's eyes diverged for a moment and then she released all the snow she was trying to throw at him. Prompto smiled:

"I'll help you get out of here so no one will attack you, okay?"

She denied it energetically again, took hold of him and held her breath:

"Go-with-you-too" finally said.

5


	2. The hidden truth of Gralea

2\. The hidden truth of Gralea.

The road through the tundra was much more relaxed than Prompto thought at first. The girl (who had not spoken again) followed him the pace pretty well and didn't present any problem with the cold that lashed the place and they walked in silence among the trees trying to find some corner where they could hide in case of being attacked:

"Ey... do you not remember your name?" asked Prompto.

The girl stopped a little surprised, Prompto realized this and turned to watch her and find that she had squatted on the snow as if she concentrated all her energy on a small space on the floor. Very slowly and stretching the index finger the girl began to write on the snowfall what appeared to be his name, Prompto came and stood at his side to be able to read it clearly:

"Ni-ve-a" he read aloud.

She looked at him and after a hesitant second nodded with a smile on her face.

"Oh… I like it, it's beautiful" He saw how the girl's face seemed to flush a little "My name is…"

A creak in the air put them both on alert, cautiously both stood up. Prompto looked for Nivea's hand and grasped it, gently placed it behind him and with his other hand reached for one of his pistols under the coat he wore. A shot grazed his ear giving him the signal he needed: the enemy was behind them. Without waiting a single second Prompto started to run while pulling the girl with all his strength, luckily for him, the girl also ran fast enough and had good reflexes to avoid branches and obstacles that appeared in the escape while dodging some many projectiles that hit the tree trunks that just passed. Suddenly, Prompto stopped short when he saw a huge monster standing in front of them: on the contrary, was a Daemon; Point in favor, his pistol was effective against him. Pushing her, the blond guy pushed Nivea behind some rocks nearby so he didn't have to watch out for her in his fight with the mutant. He had not faced anything like that for a long time and knew that he was on the right track, if the demons were emerging it must have been because the capital was near and for some reason ... or they were waiting for him or someone did not want him to come. So focused was the fight that when he wanted to realize he had to roll to the side because a gigantic precipice put an end to his elusive plan. With no time to counterattack, he raised the pistol and fired without even aiming. The shot failed and the Deamon threw him against the trunk of a nearby tree with a strong impact, Prompto felt his head bouncing against something very hard leaving him slightly dazed. Even lying on the ground the guy raised his head to locate his enemy with such bad luck that all he saw was how new attack of the monster was created in the environment for to hit him again, instinctively he closed his eyes and looked away until a small splash of snow hit his face. Prompto lifted his eyes wishing that Nivea had not interfered in the battle but the reality was quite the opposite: the girl was a few meters behind of the Daemon and was ready to charge again against her adversary, in her eyes shined the fury of a warrior still not exploded but the monster didn't think to ignore her despite being a human who only wanted to defend herself with snowballs so the demon ran against her and punched her with his giant hand, the girl avoided it throwing herself against the ground and without warning she threw a pile of snow back into the eyes of the monster. The mutant shrieked and raged against her, furiously grabbing her from the ground, Nivea gave an agonizing cry as she felt her hold her neck and lift her from the snow, without think it, the Daemon threw her against a tree. Luckily, the blow was quite mild considering that Prompto caught her on the fly and although the two ended up crashing against the grove the pain was minimal for both, on the floor, the girl watched as the blond boy was already ready to launch a new and deadly shot that completely demolished the demon:

"Are you ok?" asked Prompto helping her to stand up.

Suddenly Nivea's vision blurred and she saw clearly as a woman asked the same question a long time ago. The woman's voice sounded clear, perfect, and her vision was too real not to feel the fear running down her spine and when the vision ended, a tremendous pain hammered her head from the depths of his being, unable to do anything, she raised her hands to her head as she dropped to her knees and shouted as hard as she could, trying to silence not only her pain but also Prompto's voice, asking her to calm down. Images, many images about who she was actually came to her without a brake making her see millions of memories in seconds: She knew who was that blonde guy, she remembered his name, in Gralea she read many documents with info about that blonde guy, about Prompto Argentum... She heard shots in her mind and began to feel electric shocks in her body and remembered the pain of the experiments in the headquarters of the Empire from where she remembered that came and for this, she didn't want to go again to Empire's capital. With her eyes wide open she looked at Prompto but did not have time to talk because she saw how behind the boy appeared a new enemy pointing against them:

"MOVE, PROMPTO!" she shouted while introducing her hand into his jacket, grabbing the second gun the boy was hiding.

But even though she pushed him to prevent a bullet hit his head, the projectile hit the side of his skull spattering blood on Nivea's cheek.

Dazed, the only thing that he could see before he passed out was how the girl he believed defenseless fired right and left against several viscous, repulsive enemies he had never seen before. Soon after, he lost consciousness.

There came a time when Nivea ran out of bullets with which to attack the five mutants, none of her shots had hit the target deadly, so that she had no chance to find a new weapon with which to defend herself so for more that she tried to avoid the riddance of its enemies, several attacks hit her body leaving her badly hurt and lying on the ground. From there she watched as a new Daemon caught Prompto in weight and carried him away:

"No…" she whispered crawling in the snow "Prompto! Wake up, Prompto!

Unable to do anything else, she saw the enemy troop drifting away into the darkness:

"Bastards… come back here… Give me back him... PROMPTO!"

The guy was unable to know how long it had been meaningless lying on the ground, little by little he was opening his eyes until his sight turned completely clear. He blinked several times trying to remember what had happened and although he managed to remember all the strong pain in the right side of his head made him hold his tears in a couple of occasions. With some pain he felt the wound that had caused the firing of the last enemies that attacked them, at thought that's, came to his mind the image of Nivea defending him using his own gun, as Prompto evoke her, a strange feeling pressed his breast, she had called him by his name when he had never say aloud it ... In addition her voice ... had sounded so similar to Noctis's voice...

His chest hurt, he noticed that his stomach was upset and he was quite dizzy but he could stood up leaning against the wall of the room where he was. As he looked more closely he discovered that he was in a kind of abandoned office without windows except for a small crack in the door through which artificial light came in from outside, the room smelled of mold and perhaps of some dead rat, but everything was full of papers scattered on the floor and in rather poor condition. In the room it was cold so much that the blond boy soon saw and appreciated the steam of his own breath. With great effort Prompto began to walk, using the central desk to advance to the door, tried to peer through the crack but a sharp pain in the sides prevented it, he suspected that he had several broken ribs. Prompto put his hand on the doorknob and it was then that he realized that there was no way to open the door from the inside so he placed his back against the door and dropped to the floor, panting doubting about if he would leave alive from that place. He turned his head to a huge shelf that occupied the entire wall, the books that were there seemed to have come out of the washing machine minutes before he got there, were totally wrinkled and some even dripped, it seemed as if the place had been washed with a hose in a hurry just to be able to lock him inside, he deduced that someone should not have a better place to lock up hostages. Prompto began to feel claustrophobic in that small, damp and cold room, but he tried to calm himself by all means closing his eyes and concentrated on his breathing and he tried to soothe the pain and despair within him a little. When he opened his eyes again much more calmly, they settled on a half-soaked paper that was less than a meter from him, something in that paper became familiar and crawled a little to reach it. He took it and stood near the light that came through the door to be able to read it and he discovered that it was a report on Gladio, there were quite old data that spoke even of his service to King Regis but there was not much more; surprised, Prompto looked again to the floor finding papers that spoke not only of Prince Noctis and his companions but also of activities within the Niflheim Empire's research headquarters. However, the most important thing he found was a series of papers with hundreds of photographs, names and personal datas that, thanks to identifying Ravus among all of them, he knew who had been used for experiments… His eyes stopped at a note that froze his breath:

" _Prompto Besithia: Code inserts"_

Oh, surprise, He knew it but what was that data doing there? He continued to rummage through papers, and after a while he had to stop, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. I could not believe that everything I just discovered was true:

"How have I not noticed it before? I'm so sorry…" He murmured, hiding his head in his knees.

Knowing that if she didn't move she would eventually die, Nivea crawled to the backpack that Prompto had dropped when the Daemon surprised them: Inside she found a small kit of first aid with which she could manage and a jar of pills that appeared to be sedatives, not knowing exactly what they were, she put two in the mouth and swallowed. Leaning against the ledge of a rock, she rummaged through the bag and found a pair of ammunition boxes that fitted the weapon she had borrowed from her rescuer. After a couple of hours - where she remained covered by a pair of blankets - she felt the pain began to recede.

" _Prompto…"_ she thought sadly _._

During the time that she remained waiting for the effect of the painkillers, she slowly ordered her thoughts, carefully remembering what had happened in the last hours: she had managed to flee her cell in Niflheim thanks to a heart attack or something like that of one of the Imperial guards he carried with her, she hid in an office finding by chance the list of photographs with all those subjected to experiments discovering not only her photo among all the images and also, data that explained how she had never had symptoms of mutation. While the entire investigation base was searching for her, she set about collecting information inside the office, finding two completely identical names that led her to discover the reports of Prince Noctis and his companions. The next thing that happened, she barely remembered it but somehow she had managed to escape without being seen and finally, the cold and the snow took their strength until she woke up in the train carriage to the side to blonde guy. Nivea let out a sigh regretting that she had forgotten everything, could have warned Prompto of everything she knew… Perhaps he didn't want to go back to Gralea after listening to her because, if Prompto was looking for something in the Empire, it must have been her.

" _I have no choice, I have to go back_ " she said standing up.

The fact of having lived at that base for so long and pretending to be a scary girl gave to Nivea the advantage of being able to enter without being discovered. Thanks to the code that she had shaped above the right wrist could open certain doors without attracting attention and that way was advancing through all the plants for desperately look for Prompto. Finally she reached the top floor, a place she knew quite well because it had been her last hiding place and her way out but to do it again, he needed to find the blond guy:

" _Where fuck are you, Prompto?_ "

She ran in the direction of a particular door, rolled, and when she stands up, she raised his hand until a whistle gave him the chance to push the door, enter and close it in her wake. She gasped hoping that no camera had captured her; she had waited more than thirty minutes trying to count the seconds that the cameras took to leave as a blind spot the entrance to that office and she believed to have succeeded. Nivea knew that office, she knew what could find there and had decided to go there to find a map that would give her more clues as to where Prompto might be but her blue eyes met face to face with him. He was sitting on the floor leaning his back against the wall in front of the door, he seemed drugged because he had not even moved a muscle when she entered and closed the door behind her:

"Oh my god, guy, are you ok?" she asked him whispering.

The guy seemed to react to her voice; Nivea discovered that he was holding his ribs with the left hand and in the other held all the papers that made up the list of experienced subjects.

"What are you here?" Prompto asked.

His tone was barely a drop of life; it was as if he had decided to die locked between wrinkled papers and data from the past.

"I came for you, asshole"

He drew a sarcastic smile almost without strength.

"How stupid ..." Prompt looked away "If you don't even know me…"

Nivea advanced to him on all fours and when she was at the distance that wanted she slapped him in the face for to erase that resigned smile:

"No, you are the stupid" she said angry "Do you want to die in a place like this?"

Prompt looked at her, there were no tears in her eyes but the pain that distilled her words was suffocating:

"You've had friends, you had a family ... You should have more courage than someone who has spent her entire life locked up here for find a reason to keep surviving," she reproached him.

"What do you say?"

"You read all this, right?" The girl took the papers from his hands "You see my face? Do you see my data? We share the fucking DNA."

He knew it.

Prompto knew that the blond girl who remembered him so much was his sister but he had not wanted to believe it, he had preferred to think that it was all a misunderstanding and that the girl did not carry his blood, was much better than accepting that this girl had been waiting all life for her brother to rescue her and not only that, the worst of all was that she had chosen to escape on her own, tired of waiting for a person who did not even remember her:

"Really… I'm so sorry" He said, looking away again, feeling like the worst person in the world. Nivea watched him "Sorry for taking so long to come"

"Don't worry, Prompto, I didn't know you existed either ... I discovered it here, by chance ..."

The silence reigned in the place until the blonde guy decided to break it:

\- Thank you for coming for me...

6


	3. Escape

3\. Escape

A sharp puncture ran down his spine, but Prompto didn't even pay attention: Nivea had thrown herself over him, wrapping his arms around his neck, hugging him. Again, and though he wanted to be reproached for his behavior, someone shake his hand; Prompto remembered when he told a friends that he was a child of the Empire, who cared? They all followed him. And now, in the same place where he had lost Noctis, he found a girl who wanted to share his life with:

"Move your ass" Nivea said separating from him "We need to escape from here"

The girl got to her feet and began to remove the papers from the floor as she lit a small flashlight from Prompto's backpack and lit the books on the shelf, occasionally murmured an inaudible blasphemy each time she found an extremely wet book:

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for a map, there must be some of this build here" after a while of intensive search, the girl gave what she was looking for. With all the care that she could spread the plane of the base on the desk and illuminated it "We have two options: to go through the sewers and risk that if they find us we will only have your pistols to defend us ... or go out the front door killing everyone."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Really, Prompto? Well… For the first option, there is a room just below us full of artillery, weapons and ammunition. To reach it ... we would have to break the floor and that silent part precisely isn't it but we would have time to take several weapons and ammunition to take care of the rear.

"And sewers?"

"I went out there the first time but I had not weight and I walked without a brother badly hurt, I do not rule out that there are demons looking for us and more now that surely I should have left some other sign of having entered."

Prompto stood up hurtled and walked to the desk, looked at the map carefully and bit his lower lip:

"pséee… I hate do this!" The blond buy scratched his head and then looked with his blue eyes on the girl "Do you have my other gun? Do you bring my backpack? And do you really trust me?"

Nivea opened her bulletproof vest, showing her brother's pistol, then she turned around and pointed at the backpack:

"We're brothers, right? I have to trust in you."

Prompto drew a half smile on his face and began to tell his sister all the steps he had to follow for that while everyone was focused on her, he could carry out a plan that would destroy the research base.

The explosion of the improvised bomb shattered part of the floor of the office leaving only the desk area and the shelf, Nivea threw herself downstairs with the backpack half open and began to put everything in there, from the Smaller weapons and ammunition to small grenades; then she ran toward the door and grabbed a pair of machine guns on the way. The girl opened the door from the inside using the code of her hand and loaded one of the weapons knowing that as soon as she crossed the corner of the corridor she would run into a line of enemies.

As she had foreseen, a troop of somewhat gelatinous Imperial humanoids appeared toward her. The powerful sound of the machine gun not only deafened the corridors of the place but also left a trail of destruction in its wake. His brother's instructions had been simple: she had only to leave in less than ten minutes by the main door and get as far as possible to the tundra, sooner or later they would find again if everything went well in the wagon of the abandoned train at the boundary of the frontier. Nivea wished with all her might that Prompto was not to play kamikaze to become the hero, she had trusted him and hoped he would not turn her back on him like that.

Just as she jumped the steps on the second floor a Daemon cut her off, without thinking, the girl turned and released the submachine gun without even caring that it had ammunition inside, for to escape of the enemy had to lighten weight and not lose time. She tried to find another ladder but all the attempts she had made to fool the monster were in vain even going down a dead-end path. When trying to turn around and continue to flee, she ran into the enemy cutting off any chance of escape but just behind the Daemon, she discovered a window that led to the outside of the building, Nivea could see the spotlights that would locate it outside but at least if all that It would explode, the rubble would not fall on top of her, although the only problem that she had it was that she would have to jump the central hole that was in the plant... She had no options; she had to leave there at all costs. She kept alert, breathing, to find the right moment for to run.

" _Now!"_ Shouted to herself just as the Daemon lifted his arm to crush her, the girl rolled under him dodging the slap and she ran at full speed calculating if she would be able to reach the other side, Nivea was not sure but by the time she wanted to repent was already climbing To the railing and jumping from one end to the other. Her abdomen bumped on the other balustrade, causing her a severe pain in the ribs, she still had to jump out but she did not count that the forces would fail her in the moment of pushing herself to finally reach the window by which she intended to go outside. She looked behind and saw how the enemy imitated her and the girl knew with certainty that with that speed he would crush her against the railing, surely would break the floor and fall to the void. She closed an eye weighing the idea of letting go when suddenly a blond guy appeared before her, raised a pistol and fired. The impact was such that it stopped the momentum of the Daemon and it, fell two floors below:

"NICE, PROMPTO!" Nivea shouted at him.

" _He,he"_ He laughed as he ran to help the girl.

"Wait… what are you doing here?"

Before Prompto responded, Nivea threw down her hand to grab the weapon she had on Prompto's waist and fired into the chest of a new enemy appeared in the corner.

"I can say you the same" The blond guy introduced his hand into the half-open backpack Nivea carried and took out his other pistol, then raised both and threw a string of bullets that hit another officer who pointed them from a up floor "You should already have walked out the door"

"Now I think the window is more attractive"

Prompto looked to where his sister was nodding, looked at her and smiled:

"Why do you think as me?"

And without further ado, they both ran.

The first batch of explosives that Prompto had placed in the building exploded just as they were both coming out the window offering them an extra boost in their leap. Adrenaline flooded their bodies and Prompto, closed his eyes after knowing that they would fall into a pile of shrubs filled with snow and let out a liberating cry. The impact on the ground was painful though not mortal, Nivea felt as part of his body fell over his brother's body, they let out a few moans when they got up and resumed their escape, in the middle of the night they went into the tundra and ran separated as fast as their bodies allowed. They had barely ran a few yards when a new explosion much larger than the first one collapsed more than half of the investigation's base. Nivea listened in the darkness as her brother hummed a song in a sign of victory and she dedicated him, wherever he was, a half smile.

Even with the dark sky, Nivea reached to the train wagon. At first she was relieved to be in a known place that was not that build but the feeling of comfort not disappeared when she perceived that Prompto was not there, the girl knew that the danger had not gone at all because even, on the frontier of the empire the sound of alert in Gralea would were heard from there. Nivea dropped the bag on the floor of the wagon and completely overturned it, she cursed the moment when his brother had taken the other pistol but still she had a pair of grenades and extra ammunition for the second machine gun still carrying her shoulder. Luckily for her, just out of the door of the wagon a body was interposed between her and the outside making her let out a scream while she slipped but thanks to a very quick reflexes the person who had been in the middle also prevented it from falling to the ground:

"Nice, Prompto" She said, recognizing those blue eyes surrounded by freckles.

A week had passed since Cindy saw Prompto leave HammerHead, during that time she had wondered where that boy was headed – that well ... of boy he had little but that youthful face did not make her think of him as the man who was – and she was waiting for him to appear again. That evening, the moment that was waiting the mechanics happened and the blonde head of Prompto looked out of the garage door. She ran to meet him but was a bit confused when she saw behind his a girl, also blonde, who looked her up and down as soon as she saw her appear:

"It's good seeing you again, _Chocobo_ " Cindy said him shyly.

"that mean are you missed me every night?" for those answer, Cindy supposed that the new friend of Prompto was not a lover and of course she discarded it when the girl rolled her eyes and walked away shaking her head as if she were ashamed of the scene she was witnessing.

"Who is?" she asked him.

"Nivea"

Cindy noticed a couple of things she did not want to say aloud: the first was that it was the first time that Prompto seemed so sure of himself and that his gaze returned to light after the loss of Noctis; And the second, was the extreme similar of the new girl had with him, the mechanic had no doubt that they were family and that she surely knew why Prompto had begun his travel.

"Do you both have place for sleep this night?"

"Yes, Nivea loves sleep under the stars"

"Oh… I see…"

The blond guy looked at Cindy with a playful smile, came up to her and grabbed her by the waist:

"But we can play in your caravan while she investigates the place, right?"

"It's ok; a week is a long time waiting to ride back my _chocobo_."

From the window of the bar, Nivea looked how Prompto and her blonde-lover got into the caravan. She supposed it would take her a while to get out of there, so that as she was the one carrying her brother's backpack, she fumbled inside until she located her purse and ordered a plate of each variety inside the bar knowing that the next day her brother would cry for it. She smiled to herself knowing the evil she had just done but while she was eating, she thought that was free now, she knew the meaning of the word but had never experienced what it was. Nivea looked at the food feeling that it was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted - and the girl considered the canned food a delicacy - so he enjoyed the food and saved a little for his brother, she paid without knowing very well what had been the expense and she returned again towards the camp.

Prompto arrived after a while, he met his sister by the fire with his eyes lost in the huge starry sky and until he did not sit next to her, the girl did not feel that he was there:

"Are you happy now?" she asked him mischievously.

"Eh? W-What?" Prompto exclaimed turning red "I… I don't know that do you mean… I didn't nothing!"

Nivea let out a chuckling laugh, shook her head and punched his brother in the arm:

"I know what happen when two people go together to the bed"

"I'm sure that yes" Prompto laughed, but suddenly he was blocked. He was replied without thinking it but realized that, in theory, Nivea had never left the investigation base of the Empire how to have done something like that.

However, Nivea showed no sign of being hurt but if she realized that something had left her brother worried and had become serious and somber.

"What happen?"

"Well... I'm not sure that you really know it"

Nivea scratched her head realizing that it was her turn to explain. Her face turned sad and she wondered if it was a good idea to tell Prompto the truth.

"I know what happen but I'm sure that not with the same feeling that you"

The guy looked at the girl narrowing his eyes; he was beginning to think certain things he was not sure he wanted to know.

"There are many ways to do it…"

"Nivea, what…" Prompto wanted to interrupt but then the girl let go of the phrase that lit the wick of hatred.

"… I know that Ardyn made it with love"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?!" Nivea was startled; it was the first time that saw Prompto so extremely angry:

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked.

"What did that fuck bastard do to you?!"

The girl turned her gaze to the ground without wanting to remember anything she had suffered in the investigation base but she had the instinct to respond perhaps because if front an officer was not answered, automatically you received a strong blow.

"Sometimes was with me... and other times with other experiments." she murmured.

Prompto felt hatred invade him from the depths of his being not only to have heard the name of Ardyn after so long but because he had dared to lay a hand on Nivea:

"I can't believe it… did you wait him?

Nivea got up grabbing her brother by the collar of her T-shirt, when they were both standing after a struggle, she pushed him until they stumbled and fell to the ground:

"If you don't want I to kill you, never say that again, Prompto" She threatened him and grab the pistol she had in her jacket and place it on the blonde guy's forehead "You can't imagine all things I passed in that place... If you want to live, please, forget our conversation of that night."

Despite the darkness of the night and their backwards to the firelight, Prompto was able to distinguish a wild tear that tried to escape without success from the girl's gaze. He did not know if it was out of anger, or because she felt hurt by his words or for threatened him in that way, but he had no choice but to look away and apologize:

"I'm so sorry, Nivea… Please, calm down and put that away from me"

Nivea obeyed, turned away from him and sat down again near the fire. She buried her face between her legs and when Prompto sat down beside her, he noticed her as tremble.

"I hated the contact with Ardyn" she said while tears fell from her blue eyes "but... I could not to do anything; if you denied something there you would only receive blows and blows. Was it wrong to keep quiet for to survive one more day?"

He didn't say anything, really for as much as it hurt; it was not the girl's fault but Ardyn and all the officers of the Empire. He hoped with all his might that Noctis had returned all the suffering he had caused to more than half the world.

"Was Sibi who said me that... _do it_... would be good if you do it with someone who love you"

"Who is Sibi?"

"Really do you want to know it?"

Neither of the two brothers ever knew it but both at that moment doubted whether to continue that conversation, however… Prompto thought that if his sister was sincere with him he should listen to her and make her see that all was left in the past; and Nivea felt that she had spent all her life leaving all her emotions inside her because there was nobody to his side to share them so that, unknowingly, they both resumed the conversation a little more calm:

"Yes, I want" Prompto said.

"We lived in isolation cells because of the experiments; in a corner of my cell there was a break where I could see a tiny part of the person next door. I could never see its face or who it was, but we could whisper something every night anything and in the end, the loose words became a conversation that we liked continue with. Little by little, I got to know Sibi, I do not know if I was a boy or a girl because every time it experimented It had a different voice but then It was able to continue the previous talk and could knew things about myself that no other patient knew…" Nivea paused for a moment trying not to cry again "The first time Ardyn come to my cell was a surprise, I never have seen before... And of course, I didn't know what he wants to do with me. I only remember pain, so much pain in my body. "

Prompto clenched his fists, wanting with all his might to pay no attention to what had happened to his sister in that place, he clenched his jaw but tried by all means not to be altered while his sister continued with her story:

"Sibi told me what Ardyn's visit had been about and that it was normal for humans, with him ... or her ... He did too, but it must have been worse than I did because every time they did it with it, Sibi screamed a lot, Ardyn was very scared me but I always believed that sex was just another type of experiment. After a few years, Sibi stopped screaming of pain, I think Sibi was willing to die… It told me that sex with love did not hurt or make you feel bad, it only happened when both people wanted to do it. I understand what type of people has sex; you need a special feel not like you and me... It's everyone say it's "love"... Well I love you but I not feel I want to have sex with you, you understand me?"

" _oh my god, why are you so innocent? Why are you so cute?_ " Prompto thought. He loved how Nivea tried to explain something so horrible in such a gentle way.

"You waited for me ever?" suddenly Prompto asked her.

"I discovered I had a brother in the office just before to escape" Nivea looked into his eyes and then smiled with a bit of bitterness. When she discovered that info she knew the meaning of what it meant to be a family but she was not sure how to act if she will meet with the guy she shared DNA.

"What know about me?"

"A little... your name, your age... your number code. I remember that at that moment I don't know if I was happy or not to have a person to call brother, I just remember that discovering that gave me courage to get out of there."

"What happened with Sibi? Was in its cell when you escape?"

"I think... Sibi died three years ago. Simply, one day not returned back. I don't know if it becomes a monster or it died between experiments, I prefer to think it gone away without pain. Maybe never had another person to other side of cell, maybe Sibi was my inner voice in my head but... I'm sure Sibi saved my life"

After a short silence, Prompto put his arm around Nivea's shoulders and hugged her as they watched the fire.

"Now I'm with you, sister. We always be together"

7


End file.
